Alessandro Raho (born 1971, Nassau, Bahamas) is a British artist. His work has been shown at the National Portrait Gallery in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Career

Born in Nassau, Bahamas, Raho moved to London and attended

Croydon College Croydon College is a large further and higher education college located in Croydon, within the London Borough of Croydon. Its origins can be traced to a School of Art that was established in 1868, which subsequently merged with Croydon Polytechni ...

(1989–90) and then Goldsmith College, graduating in 1994 with a BA in Fine Art. In 1995, he was included in the Young British Artist showcase '' Brilliant!'' at

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, to ...

, Minneapolis. In early 1996, he was hailed as one of the great promises in British art, and had expositions noted in the American and the French press. In 2001, Raho participated in an exposition called ''Unseen Landscapes'', in 2002, he was in the important Painting on the Move exhibition in at the

Kunsthalle Basel Kunsthalle Basel is a contemporary art gallery in Basel, Switzerland. As Switzerland's oldest and still most active institution for contemporary art, Kunsthalle Basel forms a vital part of Basel's cultural centre and is located next to the city's ...

. In 2003, exhibited his work at Cheim & Read Gallery in New York City, where his portraits received critical attention of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. In 2004, he was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery in London to paint a portrait of English actress

Dame Judi Dench Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Regarded as one of Britain's best actresses, she is noted for her versatile work in various films and television programmes encompassing several genres, as well as for her ...

. Imagining Dench as a "wealthy housewife," he painted her in a way that "thrilled and flattered" her. Raho's work is collected by

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingd ...

, and has been shown in Tokyo, New York, and Salzburg. Two of his pencil drawings, ''Catherine'' (2003) and ''Ewan'' (2004), are in the collection of New York's

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, as part of a 2005 donation by the Judith Rothschild Foundation. In 2014 Raho was nominated and short-listed for the

John Moores Painting Prize The John Moores Painting Prize is a biennial award to the best contemporary painting, submission is open to the public. The prize is named for Sir John Moores, noted philanthropist, who established the award in 1957. The winning work and short-li ...

. The prize was a subject of a BBC 4 documentary. Alessandro Raho is represented by

Alison Jacques Gallery Alison Jacques is a contemporary art gallery in London, established in 2004 by Alison Jacques. Details Originally sited in a small townhouse off Bond Street, London W1, it relocated in 2007 to a space at 16-18 Berners Street opposite the Sande ...

, London.

Style

Raho paints portraits of friends and family, seascapes and landscapes and still lives. He uses fine oil painting with a fresh contemporary approach. His paintings and photographs were described as dealing with "narrative, nostalgia and desire," and he employs intricate technical processes "to make his paintings luxuriously photographic and his photographs deceptively painterly."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raho, Alessandro 1971 births Living people British artists Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London Alumni of Croydon College British contemporary artists